The present invention generally relates to a cup holder which is releasably secured to the arm rest of a chair to receive cups of multiple sizes.
In the past, cup holders have been proposed which are securely mounted to an arm rest, such as in a theater, stadium and the like. These conventional cup holders may be separated into two primary groups, namely those which are permanently secured to, and form a portion of, an arm rest and those which are detachably secured to the arm rest. Examples of the former group may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,234,251 (Ayotte); 4,863,134 (Young et al.); 4,795,211 (Stern et al.); and 3,675,969 (Gage). Examples of the latter group may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,238,212 (Dechellis); 4,548,326 (Danna et al.); 4,262,962 (Yust); and 3,690,724 (Douglas et al).
The patent to Danna et al. discloses a stadium seat arm gripping tray which is detachably secured to the arm of the seat. Danna's tray includes a tray portion and an arm portion. The arm portion includes side walls that extend downward along either side of the seat arm. The side walls include lips, extending inwardly to engage outer bottom edges of the arm rest. Danna suggests alternative configurations for releasably fastening the tray to the arm rest.
The patent to Douglas et al. discloses a support mounted on a chair, for holding glasses, cups, ash trays, and the like. Douglas uses a pair of fittings to hold the desired objects. The fittings are formed on a panel which has in turned ends that bend down and under a main part of the panel and beneath opposite ends of a main panel. The main panel includes a down turned edge portion and the second panel includes a down turned edge portion. The edge portions are adapted for gripping either side of a chair arm to hold the entire apparatus on the chair arm.
The patent to Dechellis discloses a beverage container that includes a cavity that receives the arm. Dechellis uses spring fasteners in the cavity to hold the container on the arm. The patent to Yust also discloses a holder including a T-shaped recess that receives and holds a top flange of the arm rest.
The patent to Gage attaches a cup receptacle with screws to an inner wall of the chair arm. The patent to Ayotte mounts an arm attachment to the chair arm with mounting screws and then inserts a padded upper surface over the screws and within a rectangular recess in the top of the attachment. The patent to Stern et al. discloses a holder mounted on an armrest of a stadium or theater seat. Within Stern's patent, the armrest portion has an upper wall with vertical posts that are adapted to receive shanks of corresponding fasteners to clamp the holder onto the armrest. The patent to Young et al. discloses a cup holder having structural elements that extend downward from the bottom surface of a beam member. Within Young's patent the structural elements define a pattern of cavities which cooperate with a corresponding configuration of recesses and tabs in the chair arm to secure the holder to the arm rest.
However, each of these prior art systems have met with limited success since each conventional cup holder is only useful with armchairs having similar constructions. None of these cup holders are truly universal. While the cup holders to Danna et al., Douglas et al. and Dechellis may be useful with more than one specific arm rest configuration, these cup holders use a plastic molded structure to achieve attachment. Thus, these cup holders are only useful with arm rests which fit within this molding, thereby limiting their versatility. The former group of cup holders are rigidly secured to the arm rest and constructed to fit integrally within a single type of arm rest. Thus, these cup holders offer practically no versatility. Moreover, when it is desirable to move the cup holder to a new arm rest, substantial manual labor is involved since the cup holder and arm rest must be partially disassembled to effect release and attachment.
Finally, each of the foregoing cup holders utilize cup receptacles having a single configuration which may receive a limited set of cup sizes. The patent to Yust offers multiple receptacles, but each is the same size. The patents to Stern et al., Young and Ayotte utilize a single cup receptacle having a multi-ledged or staged cross-section therein to enable the receipt of large and small cups. However, even this design is limited since in only receives the bottom most portion of cups having a bottom size too large to pass through the receptacle's lower stage. Thus, the receptacle holds large cups somewhat unstably. This stability may be increased solely by increasing the thickness of the uppermost stage in the receptacle. This design is further disadvantageous as it holds the cup in a position substantially above the arm rest which is cumbersome and more likely to be bumped. Thus, multi-stage receptacles are only able to receive small cups stably since only small cups pass through the lower stage. Further, the upper and lower stage sizes must be relatively close in diameter, otherwise it would be inoperative with an intermediate range of cup sizes. The largest stage only receives the bottommost portion of a cup. To do so, it must have a diameter substantially equal to that of the cup, otherwise the cup contacts the top edge of the lower stage without being securely received within the upper stage. Thus, if the upper stage is substantially larger than the lower stage, an intermediate size cup could be inserted too large to pass through the lower stage, but too small to fit snugly in the upper stage. Hence, the range of potential cup sizes is still limited.
The need remains in the industry of an improved cup holder. It is the object of the present invention to meet this need, and to overcome drawbacks previously experienced.